Kody and Kaylee's Story

I was due August 15th with our twins, a girl and a boy. Throughout my pregnancy I had been aware that I was likely to go into labor early, so I took it easy from the beginning. Carrying twins, though I really don't have anything to compare it to, is just about the hardest thing I have ever gone through, and must be much harder than just carrying one baby.

Things were going well for the three of us until around my 28th week. I was going to my OB for a regular appointment and they decided to check me out and see how I was doing. They found that I was already 2-3 cm. dilated, and hooked me up to a monitor while they called the hospital to get me admitted.

I was not contracting, but I was dilated and somewhat effaced. I totally freaked out. I had gone to my appointment alone thinking it was just going to be a regular check-up. As I lay on the table being monitored, I just cried and cried. I knew it was too early to deliver and mentally, I hadn't quite prepared myself to be a mommy yet. So I spent a few days in the hospital and when everything checked out ok, I was sent home on complete bed rest. I was only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom, take a ten-minute shower and get something to eat.

For the next five weeks, I just about lived on my couch. Things went well for a while. Though I was tired of doing nothing, I was managing. Friends, neighbors and people from my church all helped me out with meals and house work.

On June 27th, my mother was coming up for the weekend to visit. I had to attend a morning class because I had developed Gestational Diabetes. I had started having contractions early that morning, but they were weak and very far apart. The doctor said it was ok to go to the class, but to get right back home and back in bed afterwards.

Well, as I sat in class, my contractions became stronger and more frequent. About six minutes apart if I remember correctly. I told my mom, who was timing them for me, that I thought we had better go to the doctor's office right after the class to have them check me.

Luckily, both my doctor's office and the hospital were right across the road. When I got to the doctor's office, I told the receptionist that I was having contractions. Needless to say, I saw a doctor right away. They checked me and by then I was 5 - 6 cm. dilated.

They had me in a wheelchair so fast my head was spinning. They didn't want me having the babies there, and rushed me right over to the hospital.

I was admitted in a labor and delivery room, and was actually getting excited to be having the babies because my mom was there. She lives out of town and I had been scared she would miss it. We were all getting excited, the nurse on call was ordering an epidural for me, and it seemed like they were getting me all prepared for a delivery. Well, low and behold, here comes my doctor telling everyone to stop what they were doing and that he was going to put me on medication to stop my delivery. He wanted to administer one more dose of steroid medication to help the babies' lungs mature.

I had been given a dose at 28 weeks when I had had previous problems, but he wanted me to have one more dose so the babies would have a better chance. So after a few drugs didn't work, I was put on Magnesium Sulfate. That was like death in a bottle for me. They told me I would not feel good being on that stuff, but that hardly prepared me for the way it made me feel. I felt like I was dying, no exaggeration.

All this had started early Thursday morning, and by then it was Thursday evening. They told me they needed 48 hours for the babies' medicine to work. By Friday evening, I was feeling awful. The Magnesium Sulfate was making me very sick and I was getting fluid in my lungs. Almost 48 hours had passed since I had started the medication so they took me off it. Almost instantly I felt better. They told me it would just be a waiting game from then onwards, and that I could go into labor anytime from five minutes later to five days or more. I just had to wait.

My mom couldn't stay if I wasn't going to have the babies, because she had a job to get back to, so she said if I wasn't in labor by Saturday afternoon, that she would have to leave and come back after I'd had the babies. She didn't want to start her vacation until I'd actually had them so she could spend some time helping me after the birth, instead of sitting up in the hospital.

By Saturday afternoon I was no closer to having the babies, so she left. That night I started having contractions! I was given a sleeping pill to help me sleep and Sunday, June 30th, I woke up to a room full of doctors. They were telling me that I had been contracting all night and that I was ready to have the babies. They checked me and I was 8 cm. dilated. They did a quick ultrasound and decided that a vaginal birth was too risky because one of the babies was breech. So I was prepared for a C-Section.

I was going crazy. I didn't have anyone there and they were saying that I was going in the OR in about 30 minutes or so. I called my best friend nd asked her to come. She said she'd get there as quickly as she could. I was wheeled in the OR and got my spinal. My favorite nurse stayed with me even though she was supposed to be going home.

My son, Kody, was born at 9:26 am. That same minute they pulled out my girl, Kaylee, just as my best friend arrived. I don't remember much about what happened after that because I was so drugged up and sick, but I remember them showing Kaylee to me just as she was pulled out. I will never forget that moment when I saw my babies for the first time, just before they took them over to the NICU.

They were six and a half weeks early and weighed in at about four and a half pounds each. Once I got out of recovery and was on the way to my room, they wheeled me into the NICU and I got to hold my babies for the first time.

It would take eight days for all of us to get out of the hospital. My C-section got infected so I was there for that whole time. My babies did better than I did and were ready to go home after six days, but stayed in the hospital until I was ready to go home.

On July 8th, we all left the hospital happy and healthy. I have never had a singleton pregnancy, but I think that I am ok to say that I had it worse off than most moms-to-be, yet I wouldn't change a thing. I love my babies early and would suffer the world for them. I thank God every day that they were born healthy.